Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1887-09-22

1
and the two families thereby form combina-
tion which would be we'll nigh invulnerable.
But Merceria, woman like, was willful, and
instead of thinking of the pomp and panoply
of state, and the consummation of lofty am
bition, she had let her young heart, all unfet-
tered, 60 rambling over the green hills about
the lake, and on the farther shore q young
herdsman, Henrico Dobenichino had placed
it forever in thrall.
"And Merceria was happy.
But her father knew it not.
"Day after day, as the sun went down in
| its golden bed to rest and the long shadows
stretched their arms across the lake, Merceria
| came to her trysting place near the shore and
called across the waters to Henrico, and Hen
| rico always came.
Life was roseats to the young lovers but
worm is in the bud.
"One evening Merceria's father heard her
| voice, and ere the night had fallen he knew
| ALL
Like q wild animal Gagged he tore his hair
| and stormed about the castle grounds, but
| spoke not to Merceria. And she wot not
| what was up.
| "But the cruel count laid his plans, and the
| next evening he was secreted near the tryst-
| inc place, so hateful to him, waiting for his
| daughter.
"At last she came, softly as the dew falls
upon the flowers, and there was that smile
upon her face which only angels and babies
wear. She looked across the ribbon OF blue
waters, and making a tiny trumpet OF her
pretty hands, she called to Henrico:
"'Come over! Come over! Come overp
"The count peered through the dense foliage
and gnashed his teeth.
"'Come over! come over! come over! came
again from her lips the silver music.
"The count came from his hiding place, and
with stealthy tread he crept up behind his in
nocent. unsuspecting child.
"Come over! Come O.! Come o-r"
1.-The counts iron fingers sunk deep into the
SOFT white throat of Merceria, and her call
was throttled but the echoes took it up and
sounded the last notes like q wall:
"'Com-ol Como! Com-or they repeated as
Merceria lay in her white robes dead by the
shore; and when Henrico found her there the
cruel count stood by and laughed his grief to
scorn, but not for long.
sHenrico slew him, and for a hundred
years each evening as the sun went down
three misty forms rose from the valley, and,
moaning as the wind, the frightened shep-
herds heard the words, Como! Como!
Com-or
s'And that's how the lake got its name"
CHAMoUNIX, Savoy, Aug. 19.-I believe l
have confessed once or twice, during our
summer rambles, to ignorance Of certain
things, which are apparently so simple
that every one should know them. Well,
am come for confession again. The day
we came to Chamounix, / wrote Swiss
postal card full Of wise and witty observa-
tions on the trip from the last station, and
took it to the hotel letter box to mail. Just
as was going to drop it in, the hotel porter
stopped me.
"What's that for!" said ], sharply.
"'Tisn't the right kind of a post card,
ma'am," said he, politely.
''It's two cents worth" said I, "and that's
the rate to America"
"Yes, but it is Swiss card, and Chamounix
is in France, and not Switzerland"
"How stupid of me, said I, with true fash
ionable womanly grace, "to get my French
cards mixed with my Swiss ones and not
notice it. I'll just have to write another for
my carelessness," and with smiling "Thank
you," left him and hied me to my room to
stop Dickey from doing what had done, and
waste another card. I don't know whether
the porter believed the card story OF not, be-
cause so many people had done what had
that he had put up sign On the box reading
France" but know didn't believe it, and
even now 1 can't think of "Chamounix, sweet
Chamounix," as anything else but part Of
Switzerland.
Well, we have crossed the AlpS l may
say we have crossed them twice-once via
the Simplon pass and again via the Tete
Noir-and crossing the Alps is no small un-
dertaking, when you come to consider that
it has to be done by diligence or char-a-hanc
or mule a-back, or some other method of the
Noachim period, and it is all up hill and
down hill. But know what real mountain
is now, and am satisfied. For years have
been anxious to see O mountain which in
some degree approached my ideal, but
I never could find one. They all lacked the
stupendous grandeur I sought, and with each
recurring mountain brought to view came
added disappointment The morning we
started over the Simplon told Dickey sup
posed we would have the usual experience,
but when the diligence ran along slowly up
the narrow defile Of the Condo gorge, and
the mountains began to rise almost perpen-
dcular above us, felt that possibly what
sought might be found here. l waited and
watched, and at one turn in the road my
dream came true. Far far above me, until
it gave me the toothache in the back of my
neck to look to the summit, rose peak,
100000 feet up it looked like, and hanging
almost over me. The trees dwindled away
into little punches of evergreen and finally
Disappeared; but the peak ran on upward to
bare and rocky point-a very Alpine
splinter to pick the teeth Of the clouds 1t is
well said by the guide book that the Condo
gorge is the grandest in the Alps, and if in
the world there be other scenery like it
don't care to see it, for / know when
I've got enough. In the afternoon we
had reached an altitude Of 6,6OO feet;
the air was bleak and chill, and
the snow, in banks, lay along the roadside,
but over beyond where the sun could reach |
the earth, the Alpine rose painted the rocks
a rich deep red, and the harebell nodded its |
pretty blue head to the futtering gold of the |
primrose.
Up the road to the summit of the pass we |
saw telegraph poles of stone, the first had
ever seen. The driver or conductor couldn't |
speak English, and I could not ask him why
they used such material, but for tho benefit
of others who may come over the Simplon,
will venture the opinion that they are of |
stone, so they won't freeze off in winter.
Somebody, newspaper man, think it was,
told me it got SO cold at the Hospice that the
smoke from the chimneys froze every night
and chcked up the 1ue, and that the monks
dragged it out and chopped itup for fuel.
Dickey believed this yarn, but didn't, and